Block copolymers have been developed rapidly within the recent past, the starting monomers usually being monoalkenyl arenes such as styrene or alpha-methylstyrene and conjugated dienes such as butadiene and isoprene. A typical block copolymer of this type is represented by the structure polystyrene-polybutadiene-polystyrene (SBS). When the monoalkenyl arene blocks comprise less than about 55% by weight of the block copolymer, the product is essentially elastomeric. Moreover, due to its peculiar set of physical properties, it can be referred to more properly as a thermoplastic elastomer. By this is meant a polymer which in the melt state is processable in ordinary thermoplastic processing equipment but in the solid state behaves like a chemically vulcanized rubber without chemical vulcanization having been affected. Polymers of this type are highly useful in that the vulcanization step is eliminated and, contrary to vulcanized scrap rubbers, the scrap from the processing of thermoplastic elastomers can be recycled for further use.
Those block polymers which comprise in part conjugated diene polymer blocks have at least one substantial shortcoming, namely, their susceptibility to oxidation or ozonolysis. Substantial improvement both in stability and compatibility with alpha-olefin polymers have been made by hydrogenation of such block polymers. The hydrogenation may be non-selective, selective or complete. Certain technical advantages have been found for selective hydrogenation wherein at least about 80% of the aliphatic double bonds are reduced and no more than about 25% of the aromatic double bonds are reduced by hydrogenation. Block copolymers having selectively hydrogenated conjugated diene blocks are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,595,942.
Correspondingly, a group of polymers commonly referred to as engineering thermoplastics possess a balance of properties comprising strength, stiffness, impact resistance, and long term dimensional stability that make them useful as structural materials. However, for a particular application, the engineering thermoplastic alone may not offer the combination of properties desired and, therefore, means to correct this deficiency are of interest.
One particularly appealing route to achieve a material with the desired combination of properties is through blending together two or more polymers which individually have the properties sought. This approach has been successful in limited cases such as in the improvement of impact resistance for plastic, e.g. polystyrene, polypropylene, poly(vinyl chloride), etc., using special blending procedures or additives for this purpose. However, in general, blending of polymers has not been a successful route to enable one to combine into a single material the desirable individual characteristics of two or more polymers. Instead, it is often found that such blending results in combining the worst features of each with the result being a material of such poor properties as not to be of any practical or commercial value. The reasons for this failure are rather well understood and stem in part from the fact that thermodynamics teaches that most combinations of polymer pairs are not miscible, although a number of notable exceptions are known. More importantly, most polymers adhere poorly to one another. As a result, interfaces between component domains (a result of their immiscibility) represent areas of severe weakness in blends and, therefore, provide natural flaws and cracks which result in facile mechanical failure. Because of this, most polymer pairs are said to be "incompatible". In some instances the term compatibility is used synonymously with miscibility, however, compatibility is used here in a more general way that describes the ability to combine two polymers together for beneficial results and may or may not connote miscibility.
The present invention covers a polymer blend that is stable even though the individual polymers are dissimilar in chemical structure and are expected to be highly incompatible. For example, the styrene blocks of the present block copolymer have a solubility parameter, in units of (cal/cm.sup.3).sup.1/2 as calculated by Small's method (J. Applied Chemistry, Vol. 3, page 71, 1953) of 9.1 and, the poly(ethylene/butylene) block is 7.9. However, the solubility parameter for polyesters such as poly(ethylene terephthalate) is 10.7 while that for cellulose acetate is over 13. See Polymer Handbook, pages IV-341 to 368, Interscience Publishers, 1966. One would not expect to be able to prepare stable blends of two polymers having such different solubility parameters.